Vail dance students trek to Big Apple

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Students from the Vail Valley Academy of Dance recently spent five days in New York City taking master classes, seeing Broadway shows, and attending a performance of Balanchine's "Sleeping Beauty" at the NYC Ballet.

Studio head Anne Powell has been taking her students every other year for 12 years and said it's a major highlight in her students' year. Vail Youth Ballet Company is a dance company in the Valley begun 25 years ago by Powell who quickly saw the importance of travel to see the best of the best for her students' careers. Along with "Sleeping Beauty," they also saw Broadway performances of "Nice Work If You Can Get It" starring Matthew Broderick and Disney's "Newsies."

"We chose those shows because they have so much dance in them and therefore educational for our girls to see," Powell said. "Not only that, one of our classes even had an actor/dancer from Newsies who taught us one of the shows big numbers!"

Though she planned their first trip on her own, she saw the importance of hiring a tour company and chose Laurent Tours in New York.

"Laurent really has a grasp on the way our trip should be run and also knows many professionals in the arts, that we can really get fantastic teachers for our classes," she said. "Though we've only been home a few days, I can already feel the desire to go back and soak it all in."